Vane type heater



June 11, 1940. H. E... TRENT 2,204,332

VANE TYPE HEATER Filed April 5, 1957 .18 I mum nnnnnnnnnn e 245 I 6 INVENTOR ,H I O 1 d E.Tfe r) a;

AT ORNEY Patented June 1 1, 1940 UNITED sTA Es PATENT oFFlcE 1 Claim.

The object of the invention is to provide improvements in heaters of the vane type broadly, but more particularly in those which are designed to be electrically energized, and employed for use 5 in the open air or submerged in liquids or gases of various sorts.

Another object is to provide an improved method by which the new heaters are made, a method which is equally adapted for use in the l construction of both rectilinear and curved heaters, and irrespective of their length or whether the vanes completely encircle or extend only partially around the body of the heater.

A further object is to provide an improved type ii of vane, that is, one which can either be slipped over one end of the body of the heater until it reaches the desired position, or flexed so as to permit its being made to surround said body by a lateral movement, followed by re-fiexing until 20 such vane re-assumes its original plane shape.

With this brief statement of the objects, the invention comprises further details of construction and operation, which are hereinafter fully brought out in the following description, when 25 read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 represents a blank from which has been removed by stamping material to form a dumb-bellshaped aperture, providing a pair of oppositely extending attaching ears; Fig. 2 is a 30 similar view of the blank after said ears have been deflected into parallel relation with each other and perpendicular with respect to the plane of the blank; Fig. 3 shows a series of these blanks operatively positioned upon the casing of a heater 35 unit'into which latter may extend a mandrel forming a current conducting means; Fig. 4 is a side elevation of such a heater unit casing showing a series of said peripherally extending heatradiating vanes, some of which are in elevation,

40 while others are in vertical section and in addition still others are of but half vanes; Fig. 5 shows a modified form of blank in which the ears are in the position shown in Fig. 2, and one side of which is severed radially from the aperture to 45 the periphery; Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view showing the method of assembling upon a heater casing vanes formed from the blank shown in Fig. 5; Fig. '7 is a still further modified form of blank, which is in reality a pair of complementary 50 half blanks; Fig. 8 is a fragmentary elevational view of a curved heater unit comprising blanks of the types shown in Figs. 2, 5 and 7; and Fig. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary view showing the relationship of said blanks to each other and to 55 the heater casing.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, a blank 1, such as is shown in Fig. 1, is first provided, comprising any desired shape as to outline, but which is substantially centrally provided with an aperture, in turn comprising two oppositely positioned semicircular portions 2, connected by a relatively narrowslit 3, which slit separates a pair of preferably similarly shaped ears 4, each of which may be provided. with one or more protuberances 5. This blank is then treated in such manner as to 10 deflect the ears 4 into parallel relation with each other and perpendicular with respect to the plane of said blank, as shown in Fig. 2, and with said protuberances directed inwardly toward one another, the planes of the adjacent surfaces of 16 said ears being substantially tangential to the opposite sides of the semi-circular portions 2 of the aperture.

For purposes of illustration, the improved vanes and the method of applying the same are here 20 illustrated, as being in association with the transversely flattened casing 6, such as is employed in the Strip and Immersion Type Heater, shown in Patent No. 2,012,977. This heater casing is of such cross-sectional shape as to substantially fill the aperture 1 of the blank, as shown in Fig. 2, the laterally opposite portions of said aperture comprising the initial end portions 2 (Fig. 1), and being rounded in order to coincide substantially with the correspondingly curved portions of the said casing,

As the connecting portions of the external surface of said casing are substantially flat, it will be obvious that upon slipping a series of these blanks upon such casing, as indicated in Fig. 3, the respective ears 4 will then lie closely against said connecting surface portions, and the body portions of the respective blanks will extend substantially perpendicular to said heater casing to form heat-radiating vanes 8. Beginning with 40 the firstvane 8' at the left, the respective pairs of ears may be electrically welded, or otherwise integrally secured in sequence to said casing, the mandrel 9, if and when present, forming a support for said casing during the act of afiixing said vanes thereto, as well as comprising a low-resistance conductor for the electric current employed when welding by electricity. Alternative- 1y, said ears may be secured upon said casing by brazing in a hydrogen or equivalent non-oxydiz- 5o ing atmosphere, or in any other manner that may be feasible.

,It is to be particularly noted that in welding said ears to said casing electrically, the relatively heavy amperage at low voltage encounters out disturbing those adjacent thereto.

relatively high resistance, when initially passing only through the relatively restricted lugs 5, thereby heating said lugs and the region immediately adjacent to them more quickly, than would be the case if such lugs or their equivalent were not provided, as obviously in such case there would be much less resistance to the passage of the electric current throughout the entire area of each ear, thereby delaying the heating and melting of the metal of said ears, as well as requiring considerably more current in order to bring about such heating and melting. Furthermore, in order to effectively attach each vane to the heater casing, it is only necessary to weld each such ear at spaced points, rather than throughout the full extent of each respective ear, and towards this end the presence of the lugs 5 serves both to define the position and area to be temporarily melted, and also greatly facilitates such melting, as hereinbefore referred to, to the extent that the act of welding becomes a practically instantaneous operation.

Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, the blank l0 here shown is provided with an aperture Ii similar to the aperture 7 in the blank I and with ears 32 similar to the ears 4. However, this blank is severed at l3, preferably at one central end portion, so that either the upper or lower portion of the resulting blank can be deflected angularly with respect to the original plane or said blank, and as indicated by the dot-and-dash lines H in Fig. 6, or both the upper and lower sides may be deflected in the same or opposite directions, in either case making possible to place the blank upon the heater casing indicated by the dot-anddesh lines 55 a lateral movement, substantially in or tilted slightly with respect to the plane of the blank, after which the deflected portions are reflexed into their initial planular position to form vanes which may be affixed to the heater casing, as hereinbefore described. A series of these vanes are indicated in Fig. 8 as being operatively positioned upon a curved heater casing Fig. 3 also shows a series of the first-described type of vanes but there are times when this type of vane cannot be readily used, in which case the flexible type is employed, particularly when it is necessary to replace one oi the former with- Again, this structure permits the transverse or lateral attachment of silt vanes in such cases, for in-- stance, as when there are (a) two or more termirials at one end, (1)) terminals at each end, (0)

till

only a halt vane ll, such for instance as upon that side of the heater casing 6, opposite to the terminals or binding posts IS. Such a vane may be made of independent halt sections or, as indicated in Fig. 7, may be made from a single blank such as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, after which it is severed at to provide hali! sections 2| each pair of such sections thereafter being complementary, and adapted to be attached consecutively to the heater casing, as before described.

It will also be noted that these half sections are interchangeable, and therefore, do not have to be identified and selected as upper and lower sections, or by similar means of identification. It is obvious also that a pair of these half sections may be employed to renew a damaged unitary vane of the type shown in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, in which case the consecutive pairs of such sectional vanes appear the same as the vanes IS in Fig. 8, and in view of which fact the last two vanes in thisgroup are numbered 22.

In all of the forms of vanes herein described by reference to Fig. 9, it will be apparent that the ear or cars l of one may, but does not by any means have to abut directly against the adjacent surface of the vane 8, I6, 22, next adjacent thereto, and so may be welded, as indicated at 23, or otherwise secured to the adjacent surface of the heater casing 6, such attachment preferably being throughout the entire transverse extent of each such ear or localized at about a lug or the like, as hereinbefore described. In fact said vanes may be spaced quite a distance apart.

While several types of vanes have been herein described, together with the method by which they are applied to a heater casing, it is to be understood that they are intended to broadly represent the many additional modifications which may be made in the details thereof, without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claim. I

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

The method of making a heater unit characterized by a body portion and a terminal portion, which consists in providing a plurality of blanks with dumb-bell shaped apertures formed between oppositely extending ears, and a second set of blanks of substantially one-half the size of the first-mentioned blanks, and provided with longi-l tudinally spaced recesses separated by single ears, deflecting the ears of both sets of blanks into perpendicular relationship with the plane of their respective blanks, then slipping said first set of blanks in sequence over the body of a heater, integrally securing the ears of said blanks to said heater body, then placing said second set of blanks upon and laterally of said heater body, and finally integrally securing each of said last-mentioned ears to said heater body.

HAROLD E. TRENT. 

